Stress: How and why of it Stress? Me, I don’t take stress or no, I work out my stress and thus it doesn’t affect me. That is the most common response we say to ourselves, whenever there is talk about stress. And the main reason for this is not hard to find. We have skewed knowledge about what stress is. The scientific details (long and boring :) )are here at wiki. Or, skip this link and read on :) How yoga helps our body to counter effects of stress: Heart Beat: Whatever the level of stress level, it directly effects our heartbeats. The [...]

What is anxiety? Anxiety or being anxious is one of the negative outcomes of being stressed. Stress is an emotional response to pressures we feel in life and anxiety is our response to stress itself. There are many other effects of stress, why anxiety takes centre stage? Because Anxiety is when fear overcomes other emotions as a response to stress. The apprehension itself limits the person’s capacity to think something much productive in such state. Moreover, it has been found that anxiety leads to depression over a period of time, with many long-term effects. You can read about anxiety study here. [...]

(This post is last in 3 parts series about how yoga works on different systems of our body. You can read part-1 and part-2 here) The Mind Aah, the mind. The final frontier of being healthy and peaceful. Mind and body are normally considered two separate entities. But yoga, body/mind are viewed as extension of each other in holistic terms. You can’t have a tensed mind in healthy or vice versa. They impact each other, because they are co-dependent. But as compared to body, mind is not easy to guide into better health. After mind is what we use to [...]

Proper Breathing So from the part-1 post, we know that how when we hold the asana, our major muscle groups are gently stretched, and so does muscles joining the bones. This, when held for some time, leads to increased blood circulation in that area. Which in turn leads to the better nourishment of affected body parts. Now let’s delve deeper into how yoga asana practice works on other body functions (respiratory system). Biology of Breathing (respiratory system) When we breathe, it happens in three steps: Inhaling adequate breath Proper exchange of oxygen & carbon dioxide Complete exhalation This is what [...]

How does yoga work on body? You must have got to know from various sources about how yoga is beneficial for body(Or if you haven’t yet, then read this post published in 2007 in yoga journal). But the question, that follows when you read more about how yoga is done, is that how does yoga work on human body? How can, bending and stretching ourselves in certain way and holding that for few moments, going to make us healthy? Our understanding about anything related to health is based on visible efforts and actionable data. With regards to yoga, little explanation is [...]